CHELSEA are braced for a mega-money battle with Manchester City to sign Portsmouth full-back Glen Johnson.

City have told Pompey they will pay a staggering £18million for Johnson, with Chelsea also ready to splash out on a player they sold for just £4m two years ago.

There is believed to be a clause in his contract that allows Johnson to quit Fratton Park if Portsmouth receive a bid in excess of £12m, but that now appears to be insignificant.

Other than offering a big transfer fee, City are also willing to hand Johnson a £120,000-a-week salary to convince him to follow Gareth Barry and turn his back on the chance of Champions League football next season.

But City are not just concentrating their efforts on Johnson, as they will make a firm £15m move for his England team-mate Joleon Lescott as well.

Having yesterday officially unveiled Barry, it would be a major coup for City to get two more current England internationals.

It is that ambition Barry claims convinced him to give up his dream of joining a Champions League club and agree to leave Aston Villa for City. “I have to look at the fact that I’ve joined a club that is not competing in European football,” said Barry. “People will question this decision, but I’m confident that in a couple of years’ time people will realise I made the right decision.

“We all know about the ambition of this club and it excites me. They want to sign top international players and it felt like the right thing to do to come here.

“I don’t want to compare City and Villa because that wouldn’t be fair. But the whole point of me coming here was to have a change, something that excites me.

“Playing in the Champions League with Manchester City, that is viable. The manager has convinced me we can reach these heights.

“If Villa had finished fourth I would have stayed. I would have enjoyed playing Champions League football at Villa Park. It would have been wrong for me to have left had this been achieved. But once it was looking like Villa weren’t going to make it, then my future became unclear.”

Johnson is due to go on holiday after being released from England duty on Wednesday night and City and Chelsea may have to wait another two weeks before discovering which club he decides to join.

Liverpool and Tottenham are also interested, but are unlikely to have the money to get involved in an auction.

Even though Arab billionaire Sulaiman Al Fahim remains on course to complete the £60m purchase of Portsmouth within the next few weeks, the club are resigned to losing Johnson.

Al Fahim was the frontman of the Abu Dhabi takeover of City and his involvement with Portsmouth could help the Johnson negotiations.

But England boss Fabio Capello would like Johnson to be playing Champions League football in the run-up to next summer’s World Cup, which will give Chelsea hope.

Frank Lampard believes Chelsea should fight City all the way for Johnson, 24, who was man of the match in England’s 6-0 victory over Andorra this week.

“Glen is a fantastic player,” said Lampard. “Everyone knows about his ability going forwards.

“He was a fantastic player when he left Chelsea and has really come on now. He played a lot of games in the season when he first came, but was then in and out of the team.

“He is a top player and you forget how young he is because he joined us at a young age. He is top-drawer.”

When asked whether he would be interested in a move to City, Lescott said: “That’s not a question I want to be answering. Nobody has said to me otherwise, so I’m an Everton player.

“We don’t hear too much when we are away with England, so I don’t know what’s going on.”

Barry dismissed any fears prospective City signings might have about the future of manager Mark Hughes by adding: “The first question I wanted to know about was the future of the manager. I’ve seen it before. Players join clubs, then two months later the manager is gone and their future is uncertain.

“That was the last thing I wanted to happen here. I needed to know about the manager’s future.”